Non-profits are asked to run like enterprises on budgets that do not allow for it. The result is familiar: three or four sites on whatever connection was affordable at the time, a server that has been due for replacement since before the last executive director, and a volunteer roster that turns over faster than anyone can track who still holds a login. The Non-Profit IT Assessment is a free review of exactly that situation, run by NetFusion Designs from 141 Main Street N, Markham.
It produces a written, risk-ranked account of your sites, your access control, your continuity position and your ageing infrastructure. Those are the four things funders increasingly ask about and the four hardest things to fund. There is no charge, and the report is yours to quote from in a grant application if it helps.
Non-profit technology fails differently from corporate technology. It rarely fails because nobody cared. It fails because the money went to programmes, which was the right decision at the time, and nobody wrote down the consequence. The review is aimed at those consequences.
We have done this work. Youth Employment Services replaced ageing servers and moved LeaveTracker onto supportable infrastructure, and the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association moved a multi-branch association into the cloud. Our non-profit IT services page covers how we work with the sector generally.
The report is written for people who are not technologists and who may need to forward it to a board or funder without editing it first. Every finding gives you what we found, what it puts at risk, what to do, and how urgent it is.
Ranking is done on consequence to the mission rather than on technical severity. A gap that would interrupt a service your clients depend on outranks a theoretical weakness in a system nobody uses.
Findings are not priced and the report is not a proposal. Several items in a typical assessment cost nothing but attention, and we say which ones those are.
Four stages. Nothing happens that you have not agreed to, and we work around your programme delivery rather than through it.
How many sites, how many staff and volunteers, which systems carry the programmes, what your funders ask you to demonstrate, and what has already gone wrong. We agree the scope in that conversation and confirm what stays out of it.
We review what you have agreed to show us: site connectivity, identity and access, servers and cloud services, backup and continuity, and how donor and client data moves. Read-only wherever possible, and nothing altered without permission.
We write it up, rank it, and hand it over. The document belongs to you and can go to your board, your funder or another IT provider without any involvement from us.
We take you through it and separate the items you can close internally from the ones needing outside help, along with which are worth putting into a funding request.
Being clear about the boundary is part of the offer, not a disclaimer at the bottom of it.
Two organizations of the same size can need entirely different things. It is worth reading these before booking.
Organizations running more than one site. If you have branches, satellite offices or programme locations, the assessment earns its time simply by showing how unequal those sites are. That imbalance is almost always larger than anyone expects.
Organizations with high volunteer turnover. Where dozens of people come and go each year and access is granted informally, an access review is the single most useful thing an outsider can do for you.
Organizations facing a funder question they cannot answer. If a funding agreement asks about continuity or data handling and the honest answer is that nobody knows, the assessment turns that into something you can respond to with specifics.
Organizations that should ask for something else. A four-person charity working entirely in the cloud does not need this; a short general IT conversation will do. Nor does an organization that already knows its server must be replaced and simply wants that quoted. And if a funder has asked for a formal audit or a penetration test by name, engage the specialist they had in mind.
Genuinely free, and no. You keep the report either way. Some organizations engage us for the corrective work, some take the report to the provider they already use, and some do the work themselves with volunteers. All three are fine outcomes.
Yes. It is written on the assumption that you might, which is why it avoids jargon and does not read as a sales document. Share it in whole or in part, with or without telling us.
There usually is. A meaningful share of findings cost nothing to fix, and knowing which risks you are carrying deliberately is worth more than a plan you cannot afford. Where money is genuinely required, having it written down helps make the case.
That is not the intention and need not be the effect. Volunteers running non-profit IT are usually doing well with very little. The report gives them a prioritized list and, frequently, the external backing they have needed to get something approved.
We keep access to the minimum needed and agree it with you first. NetFusion Designs is SOC 2 Type 2 attested, and assessment work runs under the same controls as our client work. Ask on the discovery call if you want that confirmed in writing.
Leave your details and we will arrange the discovery call around your programme schedule. Our helpdesk and Security Operations Centre are staffed around the clock, we target 15 minutes on critical issues, and 95% of tickets are resolved same day. You can also reach us on 647-476-5259.
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